Harriet Washington: On Equity & Health Literacy

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Please join us for Say Ah!’s On Equity and Health Literacy with renowned ethicist and writer Harriet A. Washington on Wednesday, October 9, 2024, from 3:30-5pm ET, on Zoom. Register here. This is a live event and will not be available via recording.

This special installment of Say Ah!’s Racism & Health Literacy Series features a talk by Ms. Washington, whose unique and courageous voice challenges our belief in established paradigms of health care and asks us to recast our health literacy work in this new light.

Speaker Background: Ms. Washington is a highly acclaimed ethicist and award-winning author whose most recent book, Carte Blanche: The Erosion of Medical Consent, tells the alarming development of how the right of Americans to say “no” to risky medical research is being violated. Her seminal work, Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Experimentation from Colonial Times to the Present, won a National Book Critics Circle Award, the PEN/ Oakland Award, and the American Library Association Black Caucus Nonfiction Award. Her work provided the basis for the AMA’s apology to the nation’s black physicians in 2008 and led to the banishment of the James Marion Sims statue from New York’s Central Park in 2018.

Ms. Washington has been a Writing Fellow in Bioethics at Harvard Medical School and a senior research scholar at the National Center for Bioethics at Tuskegee University. Among her many awards, she won the 2020 Mailman School Of Public Health’s Public Health Leadership Award, as well as the 2020-21 Kenneth and Mamie Clark Distinguished Lecture Award. In 2016, she was elected a Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine, and in 2021, the American Medical Writers Association gave her the Walter C. Alvarez Award.

 

Program Overview: Racism & Health Literacy

A free online series to advance health equity

Register here or email info@say-ah.org
August 24-26, 2020
7:30-8:45pm
Program: Symposium Program_ Racism and Health Literacy Nights I-II 
Held in solidarity with #BlackLivesMatter and the March on Washington

Program Overview

A three-part series examining how racism and health literacy interact to impact health equity. Session I explores racism’s effect on the health literacy of Black patients, caregivers and communities. Session II highlights and amplifies anti-racist health literacy practices. Session III features powerful stories of Black healing and provides tools to help participants change the narrative.

Session Overview

Monday, August 24th: In the Beginning was the Word: Racism is rarely discussed in health communication, and yet it is an important determinant of health. This session examines the ways racism and health literacy interact to impact health equity. Speakers include: Janet Ohene-Frempong, Dr. Kirkland Vaughans, Dr. Robert Fullilove and Say Ah! Board member Dr.Tyree Oredein.

Tuesday, August 25th:  Anti-Racist Health Literacy in Action: This panel provides insight from the field, highlighting best practices and identifying key challenges in ensuring health promotion is anti-racist. Panelists represent organizations and programs, including Girltrek, AlohaCare’s Native Hawaiian Cultural Liaison, New York City’s Sexual and Reproductive Justice Community Engagement Group, New York City’s Fatherhood Initiative, and Community Service Society of New York’s Community Health Advocates.

Wednesday, August 26th: Changing the Narrative: While the national discourse on health disparities shines a much-needed light on race-based health inequities, it also reinforces a racist narrative. This narrative must change. Learn how to be a part of that change at our final evening – a night of storytelling, narrative competency and rally for civic engagement. Storytellers include Say Ah! Board member, literacy scholar and author Valerie Williams-Sanchez, Narrative Medicine educator and third year medical student Marcus Mosley, and Say Ah!’s Narrative Competency lead Oluwatomisin Sontan. 

You can start changing the narrative now by registering to vote here or here!

Racism & Health Literacy is a part of Say Ah!’s call for a racially just health care system, and an end to the discriminatory health literacy and health communication practices that often leave Black patients and caregivers unseen, unheard and unhealed.

About Say Ah!

Say Ah! is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that educates and empowers people to make positive choices about their health and health care. We do this by providing health literacy education and training for professionals, and workshops and materials for community members. Founded in 2007, we have helped more than 10,000 community members at over 60 host sites; and trained more than 2,000 professionals. For more information, visit us at www.say-ah.org.

 

About the March on Washington

This year’s March on Washington, held on August 28, 2020, will be a day of action to demonstrate the relevance and need of the ongoing fight for racial equality and will commemorate the 57th anniversary of the historical March on Washington where Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963. If you cannot march in person, you can join a virtual march here: https://2020march.com/

 

Say Ah! Symposium: Racism & Health Literacy

Join us for this free online series to advance health equity. Held August 24th-26th, 2020, from 7:30-8:45pm, in solidarity with #BlackLivesMatter and in support of the March on Washington Register here or email info@say-ah.org

Monday, August 24th – In the Beginning was the Word: Racism is rarely discussed in health communication, and yet it is an important determinant of health. This session examines the ways racism and health literacy interact to impact health equity. 

Tuesday, August 25th:  Anti-Racist Health Literacy in Action: This panel provides insight from the field, highlighting best practices and identifying key challenges in ensuring health promotion is anti-racist. 

Wednesday, August 26th: Changing the Narrative: While the national discourse on health disparities shines a much-needed light on race-based health inequities, it also reinforces a racist narrative. This narrative must change. Learn how to be a part of that change at our final evening — a night of storytelling, narrative competency and rally for civic engagement.

You can start changing the narrative now by registering to vote here or here!

About Say Ah!: Say Ah! is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that educates and empowers people to make positive choices about their health and health care. We do this by providing health literacy workshops and educational materials to community members; and training providers in health literacy best practices to ensure health information and services are accessible to all. Founded in 2007, we have helped more than 10,000 community members at over 60 host sites; and trained more than 2,000 professionals in health literacy best practices. For more information, visit us at www.say-ah.org.

About the March on Washington: This year’s March on Washington, held on August 28, 2020, will be a day of action to demonstrate the relevance and need of the ongoing fight for racial equality and will commemorate the 57th anniversary of the historical March on Washington where Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963. If you cannot march in person, you can join a virtual march here: https://2020march.com/